Sun., Sept. 18---Men’s Water Polo---UCSD at So. Cal Tournament---All Day

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No. 18 Men’s Soccer Opens CCAA Play After Successful Northwest Trip

Coach Derek Armstrong’s Men’s Soccer team will open CCAA action Tuesday at Cal State L.A. and then play its conference home opener Saturday against Cal State Bakersfield.

The Tritons, who vaulted to No. 18 in the national rankings and third in the Far West Region after knocking off No. 2 Seattle, moved to 3-0 on the season with a 2-0 decision at Western Washington last Wednesday...Senior All-American Matt Davey scored on a free kick at the 14:13 mark and defender Dustin Tannenhaus registered the second goal of his collegiate career four minutes before halftime to provide the winning margin...Davey’s goal ricocheted off the right goal post from 25 yards out on the left side...Jon Krupansky delivered a ball wide to Tannenhaus and the 6-1 defender beat three WWU field players and the goalie for his score...UCSD outshot the Vikings, 19-4, and Armstrong’s defense has still not surrendered a goal in 2005.

UCSD defeated Cal State L.A. in the only meeting between the two teams last year...Armstrong’s side knocked off CSU Bakersfield twice during the 2004 regular season but tied the ‘Runners in the CCAA Tournament, subsequently lost on PKs and was left out of the NCAA Playoffs in favor of Bakersfield.

Women’s Soccer Rocks No. 2 Seattle; League Schedule Starts Tuesday

Now 4-0 after knocking off another pair of Division II regional opponents at home last week, the Women’s Soccer team goes on the road for the first time Tuesday when it opens its 2005 CCAA slate at Cal State L.A....The Tritons return to La Jolla for their CCAA home opener, Saturday, against Cal State Bakersfield.

UCSD badly outmanned visiting Central Washington Thursday, pummeling the Wildcats, 11-0, behind junior Megan Dickey’s four-goal explosion...Fellow junior Kelly Cochran had a pair of scores while another third-year player, Alise Malley, scored a goal and had three assists and soph Ali Lai tallied once and assisted on two others...UCSD outshot CWU, 23-3, and this one was over quickly as the Tritons found the net twice in the first 7:27, scored four goals in the span of 2:43 and took a 7-0 lead at the break...Freshmen Mia Shirley and Jessica McGovern had to make just one save between them in garnering a third straight shutout.

The unranked Tritons figure to move into the national rankings this week after a convincing, 4-2, triumph over second-ranked Seattle Saturday afternoon...The Redhawks struck first on a pretty cross-header combination less than nine minutes into the game but UCSD freshman Natasha Belak-Berger was pulled down in the box and knotted it, 1-1, on a penalty kick at 26:25...That seemed to energize the Tritons who scored again three minutes later when Dickey got her own thrown-in back and sent a beautiful cross that was headed in by Chelsey Campbell...At 56:13 of the second half, Malley shook free atmidfield, somehow scooted in unmarked and beat Seattle keeper Ashley Angerer to make it a two-goal margin...With just over 15 minutes remaining, Dickey sent a floating cross from the right end line that seemed to just hang before finding Berger who headed it in from close range...The Redhawks scored late on a PK of their own to create the final number...UCSD owned a narrow advantage in both shots (16-12) and corners (7-3).

Improving Women’s Volleyball Squad Home For Two

First-year coach Tom Black’s young Women’s Volleyball team will look to continue progressing when it hosts CCAA foes Cal State Monterey Bay (Friday) and Sonoma State (Saturday) at RIMAC Arena...While improvement may seem an unusual priority for a team sporting an 8-2 record and ranked 10th in the nation, Black’s club is relatively inexperienced and does stand 0-1 in the CCAA, where it is the defending champion...A significant upside is there to be pursued.

Thursday at RIMAC Arena, the Tritons struggled before subduing Grand Canyon, 3-1 (30-23, 24-30, 30-23, 30-17)...Middle blocker Brianna Koche and opposite Amber Ries carried the Tritons offensively, slugging 16 kills apiece while hitting .417 and .583 respectively...Freshman Kim Carpenter added 10 putaways...The Tritons continued to apply pressure with the serve, slicing up the Antelopes with 16 aces, six by senior Laura Watkins and another four by sophomore Natalie Facchini...Watkins also had 12 digs while Kim Adams dished out 48 assists.

Saturday, UCSD got a taste of what it will take to win back-to-back conference titles, losing to the nation’s No. 2 ranked team, Cal State San Bernardino, 3-1 (29-31, 30-24, 30-18, 30-24) on the road...The Tritons put a scare into CSUSB, rallying from a 6-1 deficit to capture game one, but didn’t have the firepower to close out the Coyotes, the pre-sesaon pick to win the CCAA... Carpenter had a big night, accounting for 15 kills, eight digs and an ace while Nicole Courtney posted a double double with 13 kills and 11 digs...Rebecca Bailey chipped in with 10 kills and Watkins had 24 digs.

Polo Team Dominates East; SoCal Tourney Next

After winning five-of-five on an East Coast swing last weekend, the 8-1 Men’s Water Polo team will play closer to home against tougher competition at the annual Southern California Tournament, hosted by UC Irvine, Saturday and Sunday...The 7th-ranked Tritons will be pooled with Cal (No. 2), UC Davis (No. 11) and Cal Baptist at the 16-team SoCal event and will open at 9:10 AM Saturday vs. UC Davis at Corona del Mar HS...A win moves them into the 1:50 PM game with the winner of Cal-Cal Baptist while a loss would mean a 12:40 PM appointment with the loser of the same contest.

In the same pool where the NCAA Championships will be held in December, the Tritons mauled Bucknell, 15-7, Friday, getting three goals each from Brandon Borso, Adi Jerkovic and Ty Lackey...UCSD scored on 8-of-10 man-up opportunities with senior Jon Hopkins drawing five ejections, all of which were converted...The blue and gold streaked to a 7-1 halftime lead and the outcome was never in doubt.

A day later in New Jersey, the Tritons opened the Princeton Invitational with a resounding, 21-5, thrashing of Queens (NY), a club that made the NCAA Championships in 2002...Hopkins and Lackey netted five goals each and Nick Takahashi four as UCSD again settled things early, collecting 16 first half markers...The foreign legion of 15th-ranked St. Francis put the Tritons to the test in game two but with Lackey delivering four goals, UCSD edged the Terriers, 11-10...Senior Chris Eichholz scored three times, the last turning out to be the game winner...Hopkins found the cage twice and dished out five assists while goalie Colin McElroy blocked seven shots.

Coach Denny Harper’s charges closed out the tournament Sunday with wins against Gannon (16-2) and No. 10 Princeton (11-9)...Lackey, Steve Jendrusina, Travis Boetter and Jesse Casellini all scored hat tricks in the Gannon rout...Host Princeton proved stickier as the Tritons overcame a 5-4 halftime deficit to go undefeated on the trip...Hopkins accounted for three goals with Eichholz and Chris Finegold chipping in with two apiece.

Women Fourth, Men Fifth at UCI Cross Country Invitational

In the first major outing of the year, the UCSD women’s cross country team finished fourth in a 17-team field and the men fifth against 11 opponents at Saturday’s UCI Invitational, run at Central Park in Huntington Beach...Coach Ted Van Arsdale’s squad now trains until the Oct. 1 Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, PA.

Saturday, the Triton women worked on pack racing with a controlled pace through the first mile and three quarters...At that point, senior Mimi Hodgins and her mates started reeling in opposing runners...Hodgins wound up second in the race, covering the 5K in 18:26.9... Following, in order were sophomore Diane Dunn (20th/19:07.7), Emily McGregor (22nd/19:09.4), Katie Olson (25th/19:14.6), Amanda Burkhardt (29th/19:21.7) and Erin O’Donnell (31st/19:24.8)...Chico State won the women’s division with 48 points while Division I teams UC Irvine (78) and Long Beach State (95) claimed the next two spots...UCSD had a total of 98 points.

The men’s race had an interesting finish as the runners took a wrong turn and ended up cutting a significant chunk off the five-mile course...Senior Carl Lostrom was UCSD’s top finisher, nabbing 10th place in 23:11.9...Fellow senior Luke Sigmon was 18th, hitting the wire in 23:29.4...Then came Chris Beetley-Hagler (29th/23:42.8), Dan Holligan (30th/23:43.2), Evan Tamura (47th/24:19.9) and Gabe LaMothe (55th/24:30.2)...With 129 points, the Tritons had the second highest Division II team finish.